3 – Exploring the System

3 – Exploring the System

Now that we know how to move around the file system, it's time for a guided tour of our
Linux system. Before we start however, we’re going to learn some more commands that
will be useful along the way.
● ls – List directory contents
● file – Determine file type
● less – View file contents

Having More Fun with ls

The ls command is probably the most used command, and for good reason. With it, we
can see directory contents and determine a variety of important file and directory at-
tributes. As we have seen, we can simply enter ls to get a list of files and subdirectories
contained in the current working directory.

[me@linuxbox ~]$ ls
Desktop Documents Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

Besides the current working directory, we can specify the directory to list, like so:

me@linuxbox ~]$ ls /usr

bin games include lib local sbin share src

We can even specify multiple directories. In the following example, we list both the user's
home directory (symbolized by the “~” character) and the /usr directory.

[me@linuxbox ~]$ ls ~ /usr

/home/me:
Desktop Documents Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

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/usr:
bin games include lib local sbin share src

We can also change the format of the output to reveal more detail.

[me@linuxbox ~]$ ls -l
total 56
drwxrwxr-x 2 me me 4096 2017-10-26 17:20 Desktop
drwxrwxr-x 2 me me 4096 2017-10-26 17:20 Documents
drwxrwxr-x 2 me me 4096 2017-10-26 17:20 Music
drwxrwxr-x 2 me me 4096 2017-10-26 17:20 Pictures
drwxrwxr-x 2 me me 4096 2017-10-26 17:20 Public
drwxrwxr-x 2 me me 4096 2017-10-26 17:20 Templates
drwxrwxr-x 2 me me 4096 2017-10-26 17:20 Videos

By adding “-l” to the command, we changed the output to the long format.

Options and Arguments

This brings us to a very important point about how most commands work. Commands are
often followed by one or more options that modify their behavior, and further, by one or
more arguments, the items upon which the command acts. So most commands look kind
of like this:

command -options arguments

Most commands use options which consist of a single character preceded by a dash, for
example, “-l”. Many commands, however, including those from the GNU Project, also
support long options, consisting of a word preceded by two dashes. Also, many com-
mands allow multiple short options to be strung together. In the following example, the
ls command is given two options, which are the l option to produce long format output,
and the t option to sort the result by the file's modification time.

[me@linuxbox ~]$ ls -lt

We'll add the long option “--reverse” to reverse the order of the sort.

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 Having More Fun with ls

[me@linuxbox ~]$ ls -lt --reverse

Note that command options, like filenames in Linux, are case-sensitive.

The ls command has a large number of possible options. The most common are listed in
Table 3-1.

Table 3- 1: Common ls Options

Option Long Option Description

-a --all List all files, even those with names that begin
with a period, which are normally not listed
(that is, hidden).
-A --almost-all Like the -a option above except it does not
list . (current directory) and .. (parent
directory).
-d --directory Ordinarily, if a directory is specified, ls will
list the contents of the directory, not the
directory itself. Use this option in conjunction
with the -l option to see details about the
directory rather than its contents.
-F --classify This option will append an indicator character
to the end of each listed name. For example, a
forward slash (/) if the name is a directory.
-h --human-readable In long format listings, display file sizes in
human readable format rather than in bytes.
-l Display results in long format.
-r --reverse Display the results in reverse order. Normally,
ls displays its results in ascending
alphabetical order.
-S Sort results by file size.
-t Sort by modification time.

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A Longer Look at Long Format

As we saw earlier, the -l option causes ls to display its results in long format. This for-
mat contains a great deal of useful information. Here is the Examples directory from an
Ubuntu system:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3576296 2017-04-03 11:05 Experience ubuntu.ogg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1186219 2017-04-03 11:05 kubuntu-leaflet.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 47584 2017-04-03 11:05 logo-Edubuntu.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44355 2017-04-03 11:05 logo-Kubuntu.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34391 2017-04-03 11:05 logo-Ubuntu.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32059 2017-04-03 11:05 oo-cd-cover.odf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 159744 2017-04-03 11:05 oo-derivatives.doc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27837 2017-04-03 11:05 oo-maxwell.odt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 98816 2017-04-03 11:05 oo-trig.xls
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 453764 2017-04-03 11:05 oo-welcome.odt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 358374 2017-04-03 11:05 ubuntu Sax.ogg

Table 3-2 provides us with a look at the different fields from one of the files and their
meanings.

Table 3-2: ls Long Listing Fields

Field Meaning
-rw-r--r-- Access rights to the file. The first character indicates the
type of file. Among the different types, a leading dash
means a regular file, while a “d” indicates a directory.
The next three characters are the access rights for the
file's owner, the next three are for members of the file's
group, and the final three are for everyone else. Chapter 9
"Permissions" discusses the full meaning of this in more
detail.
1 File's number of hard links. See the sections "Symbolic
Links" and "Hard Links" later in this chapter.
root The username of the file's owner.
root The name of the group that owns the file.
32059 Size of the file in bytes.
2007-04-03 11:05 Date and time of the file's last modification.
oo-cd-cover.odf Name of the file.

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 Having More Fun with ls

Determining a File's Type with file

As we explore the system it will be useful to know what files contain. To do this we will
use the file command to determine a file's type. As we discussed earlier, filenames in
Linux are not required to reflect a file's contents. While a filename like “picture.jpg”
would normally be expected to contain a JPEG compressed image, it is not required to in
Linux. We can invoke the file command this way:

file filename

When invoked, the file command will print a brief description of the file's contents.
For example:

[me@linuxbox ~]$ file picture.jpg

picture.jpg: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01

There are many kinds of files. In fact, one of the common ideas in Unix-like operating
systems such as Linux is that “everything is a file.” As we proceed with our lessons, we
will see just how true that statement is.
While many of the files on our system are familiar, for example MP3 and JPEG, there are
many kinds that are a little less obvious and a few that are quite strange.

Viewing File Contents with less

The less command is a program to view text files. Throughout our Linux system, there
are many files that contain human-readable text. The less program provides a conve-
nient way to examine them.

What Is “Text”?
There are many ways to represent information on a computer. All methods in-
volve defining a relationship between the information and some numbers that will
be used to represent it. Computers, after all, only understand numbers and all data
is converted to numeric representation.

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Some of these representation systems are very complex (such as compressed

video files), while others are rather simple. One of the earliest and simplest is
called ASCII text. ASCII (pronounced "As-Key") is short for American Standard
Code for Information Interchange. This is a simple encoding scheme that was first
used on Teletype machines to map keyboard characters to numbers.
Text is a simple one-to-one mapping of characters to numbers. It is very compact.
Fifty characters of text translates to fifty bytes of data. It is important to under-
stand that text only contains a simple mapping of characters to numbers. It is not
the same as a word processor document such as one created by Microsoft Word or
LibreOffice Writer. Those files, in contrast to simple ASCII text, contain many
non-text elements that are used to describe its structure and formatting. Plain
ASCII text files contain only the characters themselves and a few rudimentary
control codes such as tabs, carriage returns and line feeds.
Throughout a Linux system, many files are stored in text format and there are
many Linux tools that work with text files. Even Windows recognizes the impor-
tance of this format. The well-known NOTEPAD.EXE program is an editor for
plain ASCII text files.

Why would we want to examine text files? Because many of the files that contain system
settings (called configuration files) are stored in this format, and being able to read them
gives us insight about how the system works. In addition, some of the actual programs
that the system uses (called scripts) are stored in this format. In later chapters, we will
learn how to edit text files in order to modify systems settings and write our own scripts,
but for now we will just look at their contents.
The less command is used like this:

less filename

Once started, the less program allows us to scroll forward and backward through a text
file. For example, to examine the file that defines all the system's user accounts, enter the
following command:

[me@linuxbox ~]$ less /etc/passwd

Once the less program starts, we can view the contents of the file. If the file is longer

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 Viewing File Contents with less

than one page, we can scroll up and down. To exit less, press the q key.
The table below lists the most common keyboard commands used by less.

Table 3-3: less Commands

Command Action
Page Up or b Scroll back one page
Page Down or space Scroll forward one page
Up arrow Scroll up one line
Down arrow Scroll down one line
G Move to the end of the text file
1G or g Move to the beginning of the text file
/characters Search forward to the next occurrence of characters
n Search for the next occurrence of the previous search
h Display help screen
q Quit less

Less Is More
The less program was designed as an improved replacement of an earlier Unix
program called more. The name “less” is a play on the phrase “less is more” — a
motto of modernist architects and designers.
less falls into the class of programs called “pagers,” programs that allow the
easy viewing of long text documents in a page by page manner. Whereas the
more program could only page forward, the less program allows paging both
forward and backward and has many other features as well.

Taking a Guided Tour

The file system layout on a Linux system is much like that found on other Unix-like sys-
tems. The design is actually specified in a published standard called the Linux Filesystem
Hierarchy Standard. Not all Linux distributions conform to the standard exactly but most
come pretty close.

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Next, we are going to wander around the file system ourselves to see what makes our
Linux system tick. This will give us a chance to practice our navigation skills. One of the
things we will discover is that many of the interesting files are in plain human-readable
text. As we go about our tour, try the following:
1. cd into a given directory
2. List the directory contents with ls -l
3. If you see an interesting file, determine its contents with file
4. If it looks like it might be text, try viewing it with less
5. If we accidentally attempt to view a non-text file and it scrambles the terminal
window, we can recover by entering the reset command.

Remember the copy and paste trick! If you are using a mouse, you can double
click on a filename to copy it and middle click to paste it into commands.

As we wander around, don't be afraid to look at stuff. Regular users are largely prohibited
from messing things up. That's the system administrator's job! If a command complains
about something, just move on to something else. Spend some time looking around. The
system is ours to explore. Remember, in Linux, there are no secrets!
Table 3-4 lists just a few of the directories we can explore. There may be some slight dif-
ferences depending on our Linux distribution. Don't be afraid to look around and try
more!

Table 3-4: Directories Found on Linux Systems

Directory Comments
/ The root directory. Where everything begins.
/bin Contains binaries (programs) that must be present for the
system to boot and run.
/boot Contains the Linux kernel, initial RAM disk image (for
drivers needed at boot time), and the boot loader.

Interesting files:
● /boot/grub/grub.conf or menu.lst, which
are used to configure the boot loader.
● /boot/vmlinuz (or something similar), the Linux
kernel

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 Taking a Guided Tour

Directory Comments
/dev This is a special directory that contains device nodes.
“Everything is a file” also applies to devices. Here is where
the kernel maintains a list of all the devices it understands.
/etc The /etc directory contains all of the system-wide
configuration files. It also contains a collection of shell
scripts that start each of the system services at boot time.
Everything in this directory should be readable text.

Interesting files: While everything in /etc is interesting,

here are some all-time favorites:
● /etc/crontab, a file that defines when
automated jobs will run.
● /etc/fstab, a table of storage devices and their
associated mount points.
● /etc/passwd, a list of the user accounts.

/home In normal configurations, each user is given a directory in

/home. Ordinary users can only write files in their home
directories. This limitation protects the system from errant
user activity.
/lib Contains shared library files used by the core system
programs. These are similar to dynamic link libraries
(DLLs) in Windows.
/lost+found Each formatted partition or device using a Linux file system,
such as ext4, will have this directory. It is used in the case of
a partial recovery from a file system corruption event.
Unless something really bad has happened to our system,
this directory will remain empty.
/media On modern Linux systems the /media directory will
contain the mount points for removable media such as USB
drives, CD-ROMs, etc. that are mounted automatically at
insertion.
/mnt On older Linux systems, the /mnt directory contains mount
points for removable devices that have been mounted
manually.

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Directory Comments
/opt The /opt directory is used to install “optional” software.
This is mainly used to hold commercial software products
that might be installed on the system.
/proc The /proc directory is special. It's not a real file system in
the sense of files stored on the hard drive. Rather, it is a
virtual file system maintained by the Linux kernel. The
“files” it contains are peepholes into the kernel itself. The
files are readable and will give us a picture of how the
kernel sees the computer.
/root This is the home directory for the root account.
/sbin This directory contains “system” binaries. These are
programs that perform vital system tasks that are generally
reserved for the superuser.
/tmp The /tmp directory is intended for the storage of temporary,
transient files created by various programs. Some
configurations cause this directory to be emptied each time
the system is rebooted.
/usr The /usr directory tree is likely the largest one on a Linux
system. It contains all the programs and support files used
by regular users.
/usr/bin /usr/bin contains the executable programs installed by
the Linux distribution. It is not uncommon for this directory
to hold thousands of programs.
/usr/lib The shared libraries for the programs in /usr/bin.
/usr/local The /usr/local tree is where programs that are not
included with the distribution but are intended for system-
wide use are installed. Programs compiled from source code
are normally installed in /usr/local/bin. On a newly
installed Linux system, this tree exists, but it will be empty
until the system administrator puts something in it.
/usr/sbin Contains more system administration programs.
/usr/share /usr/share contains all the shared data used by
programs in /usr/bin. This includes things such as
default configuration files, icons, screen backgrounds, sound
files, etc.

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 Taking a Guided Tour

Directory Comments
/usr/share/doc Most packages installed on the system will include some
kind of documentation. In /usr/share/doc, we will find
documentation files organized by package.
/var With the exception of /tmp and /home, the directories we
have looked at so far remain relatively static, that is, their
contents don't change. The /var directory tree is where
data that is likely to change is stored. Various databases,
spool files, user mail, etc. are located here.
/var/log /var/log contains log files, records of various system
activity. These are important and should be monitored from
time to time. The most useful ones are
/var/log/messages and /var/log/syslog. Note
that for security reasons on some systems only the superuser
may view log files.

Symbolic Links
As we look around, we are likely to see a directory listing (for example, /lib) with an
entry like this:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 2007-08-11 07:34 libc.so.6 -> libc-2.6.so

Notice how the first letter of the listing is “l” and the entry seems to have two filenames?
This is a special kind of a file called a symbolic link (also known as a soft link or sym-
link). In most Unix-like systems it is possible to have a file referenced by multiple names.
While the value of this might not be obvious, it is really a useful feature.
Picture this scenario: A program requires the use of a shared resource of some kind con-
tained in a file named “foo,” but “foo” has frequent version changes. It would be good to
include the version number in the filename so the administrator or other interested party
could see what version of “foo” is installed. This presents a problem. If we change the
name of the shared resource, we have to track down every program that might use it and
change it to look for a new resource name every time a new version of the resource is in-
stalled. That doesn't sound like fun at all.
Here is where symbolic links save the day. Suppose we install version 2.6 of “foo,” which
has the filename “foo-2.6” and then create a symbolic link simply called “foo” that points
to “foo-2.6.” This means that when a program opens the file “foo”, it is actually opening
the file “foo-2.6”. Now everybody is happy. The programs that rely on “foo” can find it

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and we can still see what actual version is installed. When it is time to upgrade to “foo-
2.7,” we just add the file to our system, delete the symbolic link “foo” and create a new
one that points to the new version. Not only does this solve the problem of the version
upgrade, but it also allows us to keep both versions on our machine. Imagine that “foo-
2.7” has a bug (damn those developers!) and we need to revert to the old version. Again,
we just delete the symbolic link pointing to the new version and create a new symbolic
link pointing to the old version.
The directory listing at the beginning of this section (from the /lib directory of a
Fedora system) shows a symbolic link called libc.so.6 that points to a shared library
file called libc-2.6.so. This means that programs looking for libc.so.6 will ac-
tually get the file libc-2.6.so. We will learn how to create symbolic links in the next
chapter.

Hard Links
While we are on the subject of links, we need to mention that there is a second type of
link called a hard link. Hard links also allow files to have multiple names, but they do it
in a different way. We’ll talk more about the differences between symbolic and hard links
in the next chapter.

Summing Up
With our tour behind us, we have learned a lot about our system. We've seen various files
and directories and their contents. One thing we should take away from this is how open
the system is. In Linux there are many important files that are plain human-readable text.
Unlike many proprietary systems, Linux makes everything available for examination and
study.

Further Reading
● The full version of the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard can be found here:
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
● An article about the directory structure of Unix and Unix-like systems: http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_directory_structure
● A detailed description of the ASCII text format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
ASCII

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